GX.Sigma
Adventurer
In short, I find things are much better if I ignore most of the rules for them.
I feel this way about all TRPG rules.
In short, I find things are much better if I ignore most of the rules for them.
In this part I was talking about knowledge skills (Arcana, History, Nature, Religion), not skills in general. I'm not sure how a player can engineer a situation of "maybe knowing something, but being uncertain enough that you have to roll for it," or how that would be as consistently helpful as a high passive Perception.
I feel this way about all TRPG rules.
I like skills. I like how they're always "maxed", instead of 3E where you had points but had to put them all into the same few to keep them useful. In theory it's nice to spread them around, but in practice half a skill isn't much better than no skill.
... Rangers should be Expert trackers...
5E SRD said:Natural Explorer
You are particularly familiar with one type of natural environment and are adept at traveling and surviving in such regions. Choose one type of favored terrain: arctic, coast, desert, forest, grassland, mountain, swamp, or the Underdark. When you make an Intelligence or Wisdom check related to your favored terrain, your proficiency bonus is doubled if you are using a skill that you're proficient in.
The Tool vs. Skill confusion comes up a lot, but it seems very clear to me. While there are corner cases where the concept doesn't hold universallly, a Tool Proficiency requires a physical object (ie a tool) to attempt a task, while a Skill does not.
Thieves' Tools is a tool proficiency, because if you don't have them (or at least something you can use as a rough approximation) you can't attempt to pick a lock or disable a trap.
Sleight of Hand is a Skill, because you're not using a tool (outside of situations like actually cutting someone's purse).
Musical Instrument is a tool proficiency because it involves playing a physical instrument.
Perform is a skill because it covers other things like Singing, Dancing, Oration, etc, where you only need your body and/or voice.
While some skills, such as Athletics to climb, can benefit from a tool (such as a climber's kit granting advantage on said checks) it's not required.
Likewise, someone proficient in Navigator's Tools could probably attempt to navigate without them, but would do so at disadvantage. Someone trying to pick a lock with a nail and some wire would likewise roll a Thieves' Tools check at disadvantage. Meanwhile, someone trying to pick the same lock without anything to approximate the tools couldn't make the attempt at all.
I think the 5E skill system is fine. It's a little rough around the edges at times, but it flows pretty simply and easily during play, IME.
Because a tool is usually not applicable to as broad of a category of tasks as a skill, and is not closely related enough to any particular skill in order to be subsumed by it. I mean, knowing how to do carpentry is not nearly as broadly applicable as being a proficiently athletic person, and there is no skill that carpentry clearly fits into nor any related tools that could be sensibly combined with carpentry tools into a single skill.Why even make this distinction?
Perform and musical instrument proficiency do not overlap.And what do you do about overlapping skills like Perform and Tool(Musical Instrument)?